Posts Categorized: School Grading

What, really, is the point of a school performance report? This is the question that hasn’t been answered in the discussion about school accountability. Is it to measure the teaching quality so parents know if their child’s school is really a good school? Or is it a self-assessment measure for schools to look at their… Read more »

As the North Carolina General Assembly opens its long session on January 25, WakeEd Partnership has released its Public Policy Agenda (PDF) with an emphasis on teacher talent management, improving school accountability measures, and ensuring student equity for all. The document is organized under three main topics: Properly Value the Teaching Profession, Align Academic Standards… Read more »

The “restart” model for high-needs schools will expand to 10 more WCPSS schools next year. Last week, the state Board of Education approved the application submitted by WCPSS to restart five more elementary schools and five middle schools. All of which are schools that need to improve their test scores. The school system “relaunched” Walnut… Read more »

Most of the news of the past few weeks about school performance focused on the NC School Report Card grades, but a great story about Wake County Public School System’s school performance might have been easily overlooked. Data was presented to the Wake County School Board in a work session last week that measured the… Read more »

The North Carolina school grading formula will be changing again because the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires more detailed information. ESSA was enacted by Congress at the end of 2015, and many of its regulations are being developed now. NC School Report Card grades are reported using an A-F system, and each… Read more »

Members of the General Assembly called this year’s legislative session “short,” but it was anything other than short when considering the number of education reforms addressed. Some passed, some failed. Either way, there’s harbingers for what’s ahead in next year’s long session. The budget, which is awaiting final signature by Gov. Pat McCrory, had perhaps the… Read more »

On Tuesday night, the Board of Education made plain their displeasure with the General Assembly’s approach to school grades and associated repercussions. The General Assembly’s Appropriations Bill changed how schools were designated as low performing. Last school year, a school was low performing if it received a letter grade of D or F and did… Read more »

School Performance Grade – calculated by weighting and combining two other scores: achievement and growth. Achievement counts 80 percent of the total grade. Growth counts 20 percent. Achievement – primarily test scores. In elementary and middle school, these includes math and language arts end-of-grade tests in grades three through eight. Science is tested in grades… Read more »

The last week of April featured the all-important legislative crossover deadline. WakeEd has been following several bills that address drivers education funding, teacher pay, financial flexibility, and calendar flexibility. We thought a review of how these bills have moved through the General Assembly would be helpful. As a reminder, bills that are introduced must be… Read more »

On February 5, the NC Department of Public Instruction released the new school report cards. The report cards are new because they feature a letter grade for each school. The letter grade is known as the School Performance Grade, and it is determined by a formula that considers an achievement score and a growth score… Read more »